


Oranges

by Vera (Vera_DragonMuse)



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-06
Updated: 2010-11-06
Packaged: 2017-10-21 02:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vera_DragonMuse/pseuds/Vera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frienmies. Written for Round One, Challenge Five of Last Author Standing: Jossverse</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oranges

A single orange perched on a crate, the smell of several previously disemboweled specimens hanging in the air. Tension held the air tight and close in the hold.

“I’m a growing girl.” River cajoled, poised with one hand outstretched over the precious fruit.

“Don’t see a need for you to get any bigger.” Jayne’s knife hovered just above her fingers.

“You’ve had three already. I’ve only had one.” She whined. “Jayne shouldn’t be so greedy.”

“Jayne was stabbed in the gorram thigh so you could get your happy pills last week.” He growled. “Greed don’t factor into it.”

“We are at an impasse.” Her nostrils flared. “There is only one way to end this.”

“Agreed.”

The blade sliced down.

“Jayne!” Kaylee shrieked.

“What?” He took up the now cleanly split orange and handed half to River, who bit into it in a spurt of juice.

“You ‘bout gave me a heart attack.” Kaylee pressed her hand to her chest. “Didn’t no one ever tell you not to play with knives?”

“S’my job.” He peeled the skin back from the flesh of the fruit. “And girl’s got quick reflexes, dontcha?”

“Everything dances.” River said, licking her fingertips. “Vibrates, shaking up the universe.”

“Was that the last orange?” Kaylee looked mournfully down at the wet smear that remained on the crate.

“No.” River reached into her pocket and pulled out another. “Distribution was unequal.”

“Why you lyin’ rat!” Jayne threw the knife at her head. She caught it by the handle, turning the blade to the thick citrus skin.

“Simon’ll kill you if he sees you throwin’ weapons at her.” Kaylee warned, but her eyes were all for the orange River handed to her, perfectly peeled.

“Don’t tell.” Alighting on a crate, River spun a hypnotic pirouette. “Only trouble and yelling from that.”

“Aw, Jayne!” Kaylee bit into her orange. “She likes you.”

“No, she don’t.” Jayne wiped his fingers on his pants. “We hate each other, right girlie?”

“There is a space between warriors.” She acknowledged from her perch. “It lives in tight places and smells in the dark.”

“You callin’ me smelly?” Jayne asked warily.

“I think she’s saying that she respects you.” Kaylee bit into her fruit and let out a soft, happy noise. “As a fellow warrior.”

“She’s a whole lotta crazy stuffed into pretty bits of fabric is what she is.”

“You really are a sucking chest wound of a human being.” Simon yelled down into the hold. “Just leave her- Do I smell oranges?”

“Didn’t you get one?” Kaylee asked, guiltily. “Could’ve sworn I left you one in your lab.”

“Confiscated.” River chimed in. “Paid the price.”

“Price for what? Breathing?” Simon frowned. “I’m going to get scurvy thanks to you.”

“Here, Simon. I have a bit of mine left.” Kaylee held out a segment. His fingers curled around hers and they leaned forward for a quick kiss.

“Ew.” River and Jayne said.

“Shut it.” Simon said around a mouthful of fruit.

“Oh, I wanted to show you something!”Kaylee beamed at him, tugging on his shirt. “You know how you were sayin’ that maybe we’d be more efficient if we could harness more solar when we pass stars? Well, one of the crates had this magazine in it..”

They disappeared into the guts of the engine, leaving Jayne to watch River spin like a lazy top.

“Gonna make yourself sick like that.” He commented, turning his knife to a bit of innocent wood.

“Not.” But she slowed and finally sank into a full lotus. “I am a warrior.”

“Didn’t recall saying you wasn’t.” He carved out a roughly human shape.

“I’m not just crazy and lace.” She frowned. “What are you doing?”

“What’s it look like?” His knife bit into the wood, hewing away steadily.

“Whittling is a time honored past time from Earth that Was.” She stared at his hands. “What will you make?”

“Kindling.” He grimaced where the knife bit too deep.

They shared a silence. He’d grown used to her eyes on him, soaking up his work and skills like a sponge. At first, it had bothered him on a bone-deep level. Until he watched her take out a band of would-be thieves with only the knife she’d taken from his waist while he lie bleeding into the dirt. The sharp grace she used was all her own, but the moves were his. A stirring of pride had mingled with the encroaching darkness of unconsciousness and never leached away again.

Now, they could sit together on quiet days like two beasts in the sun after a kill. His knife and her bright eyes.

“Here.” He said casually when the last of the carving was done.

A tiny dancer filled her hands, unpolished and rough hewn. She stood on the toes of one foot in a contorted pirouette, long hair in a stream behind her.

“Thank you.” She smiled all teeth at him.

“Don’t say I never gave you nothin’.” He tucked the knife back into his belt.

“No.” She leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his cheek. “That I would never say.”


End file.
